Diane Keaton bought her ‘dream house’ in 2011. It was for sale months before her death
Diane Keaton surprised many when she listed her beloved Los Angeles estate for sale this year.
The Oscar winner and architecture aficionado once described the property in Sullivan Canyon, in the affluent and prestigious neighbourhood of Brentwood, as her “dream home”.
Yet, in late March this year, the property hit the market for US$29 million ($44 million).
Just six weeks later, the Anne Hall star knocked more than US$1 million ($1.5 million) off the asking price.
Two days ago, on Saturday October 11, the Anne Hall star died. She was 79.
In a statement, her family “asked for privacy” as they grieved their immense loss.
Details filtering out into the media since her passing suggest she experienced a sudden “unexpected” decline in health. Her family chose to keep her health battle private.
There were small clues. She had reportedly withdrawn from public life and was no longer taking her dog on daily walks, something those in her neighbourhood had noticed.
Though, it was when she listed her five-bedroom and seven-bathroom home for sale gentle alarm bells sounded for some.
Keaton had been instrumental in the home’s creation since taking ownership in 2011 after paying US$4.7 million ($7 million). She had handpicked the 75,000 bricks, sourced from Chicago, used in the build.
She then gut renovated the home, a process that took eight years to complete. She detailed the experience in her 2017 book ‘The House Pinterest Built’.
“I always had an interest in homes and the concept of home, but the problem is I never really land and stay. Something’s wrong,” she told Wine Spectator in 2017.
“But something’s right, because I love it.”
The Family Stone actress was reportedly inspired by a collection of inspirational photos and the folktale, The Three Little Pigs, to build an indestructible brick house.
“I fell in love with the bricks, and I fell in love with the mortar. I wanted to have space between the bricks so they could have a life of their own,” she told Architectural Digest that same year.
“It’s old brick I bought in Chicago, and I shipped it and I kept coming back for more; they probably thought I was insane. And maybe they are right.”
During the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, Keaton shared more about her love for property during intimate social media videos.
“Ever since I was a little girl, I was always interested in houses and homes,” she shared in one video.
“I remember we lived right here in Highland Park in Los Angeles and there were all kinds of little cute California bungalow houses. And my Dad went and bought a house and he actually moved the entire house on a truck to a lot that he bought and then he began to shape that house.”
She said it was her own lived experiences that guided her to engage with residential architecture.
“So you know what I’ve done, I’ve saved all these pictures about the buildings I wished I could have lived in. At least for a little while,” she said.
“When I saw this photograph I ripped it out of a magazine, I thought ‘god, wouldn’t it be great to have a brick house’. You know what, it took me about 10 years to do it but finally I built a brick house.”
One of the other photos was of a building with a large archway, believed to be a museum.
Then, there was a photo of a windmill and then a water tower in New York City.
“All my life I’ve wanted to have.. a water tower. Finally, I bought a water tower that I put up in my house that I re-did in Tucson Arizona, and I love it,” she said.
She also shared a photo of a quonset hut, a prefabricated home made from corrugated iron and in a semicircular shape.
She said lived in one of the structures when she was three and looking at the photo made her think fondly of her late parents.
It is not yet publicly known whether Keaton’s home sold before her passing.
The Brentwood property was just one in a stable of homes Keaton owned.
She bought her first property, a full-floor apartment in San Remo in Manhattan, following the success of the 1977 film Annie Hall.
In the 1990s she purchased Lloyd Wright’s historic Samuel-Novarro house, which she restored and later sold. Lloyd was the eldest son of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Over the years, she has owned homes in Bel-Air, Laguna Beach, Beverly Hills and in the deserts of Arizona.
Keaton was estimated to have a net worth of about US$100 million ($150 million).
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